Private Tales Steppebound

[Vyx'aria]

Vyx’aria stood in silence, her blades slick with dust and elemental ichor. The room had fallen still, save for the lingering echo of battle and the faint pulse of magic from the crystal in Ispir’s arms.

She sheathed her blades with slow, practiced movements. Her eyes, dull now with fatigue instead of fury, lifted toward him when he spoke.

She eyed him curiously, wondering what he gleaned. But she set it aside, easing back into her methodical routine.

“Let’s keep going,” she murmured.

But when she took a step, her footing was uneasy. The impact of it sent a tremor through her frame, and she stiffened, then slowly, steadily, sank to the ground. Her knees bent with reluctant grace, and she collapsed into a seated position. Her breathing was quiet but uneven, the toll of injuries, battles, and too many sleepless days catching up to her all at once.

She didn’t say anything more. Just sat, back against a jagged stone, her head tipped slightly forward, eyes half-closed, breathing heavy. In the surface world, she slept during the day, hidden away where no one could see her truly vulnerable. But now… now there was no time, no privacy. Only exhaustion.

And for once, she let it show.

 

[Ispir Sione]

Ispir would only have time to take a single step, to nod at Vyx'aria and her murmured words, until he was tested again. This time there was nothing more pressing, nothing more urgent, than rushing to her. So with a sharp CLANG that at least proved the crystals were durable, as soon as Ria began to sink to the ground she would find a small, soft frame there to support her. Two arms gently circling her waist as Ispir slowly, gently helped guide her to sit down. He wasn't able to stop it, but he was able to whisper gently as he helped her sit back against a nearby rock.

"I've got you."

Was all he whispered. A gentle, knowing smile on his face as he gave a sigh and removed her cloak just to add it to his own around her shoulders. The rock would never be a COMFORTABLE seat but the softness of the two travel cloaks may at least make it cozy enough for her to rest. Bundling the cloak around Ria's shoulders and even rolling up the hood behind her head to make something like a pillow he would turn and make a small stone pit from the ample stone in the area. From his travel pack he would retrieve a small, treated bundle of tinder, a pot, some water, and some very carefully wrapped jerky bits, potatoes, cheese and press-dried parsley.

Making a small hanging pot to make some nice, hot soup Ispir would chew on his lip for a moment. Vaguely embarrassed, or rather VERY embarrassed, as he awkwardly tried to move behind the rock and get a waterskin to her lips, then tried sitting beside her and holding it steady, only to finally relent to the soft blush on his cheeks and gently sat in her lap, facing her, tenderly guiding a small drink to her lips from the pouch as he murmured.

"Careful. Not too fast, okay?"

Closing the waterskin he would set it to the side and grab Ria a bowl of VERY road-friendly cheesy potato soup. Nestling down into her lap, knees on either side of her thighs, gentle aquamarine eyes would gaze out her through a hazy cloud of mist, his breathe gently cooling the first bite, before he held it up for her and giggled a tiny bit.

"You really are pretty awesome....."

That smile would fade after a moment to an entirely new emotion. A pout, of which she had seen many on Ispir's face during their time together, but.... different. This one was.... authoritative? Vaguely reprimanding? Neither of those words were soft or kind enough to truly encapsulate the genuine concern in his eyes but were ones she was likely much more familiar with. His words growing just a bit more firm as he added.

"..... but.... please don't push yourself so hard, okay Ria? You have me worried sick."​

 

[Vyx'aria]

Vyx’aria didn’t flinch when he reached her. She was too tired. Too wrung out from the battle, from the endless barrage of tests, from the days of sleepless vigilance above ground. She let herself be guided to the stone, her breath shallow, her limbs leaden. When the cloak was bundled around her shoulders, she gave a low grunt, her signature response when she had no words, somewhere between acknowledgment and begrudging approval.

She didn’t stop him when he pressed the waterskin to her lips. Didn’t protest when he awkwardly fumbled through his ministrations. But when he climbed into her lap, the motion startled her just enough to draw a faint blink of confusion.

Her muscles stiffened.

Then slowly, steadily, she relaxed.

He was small, warm, and radiated an unflinching sort of devotion that she didn’t know what to do with. There was no seduction to it, no ulterior motive. Just care. Honest and unguarded.

“You are very brave,” she muttered hoarsely, her grin lopsided with fatigue. “Climbing into a drow’s lap.”

When the scent of food reached her nose, her stomach answered with a quiet growl, far too quiet to embarrass her, but enough to make her sigh. She accepted the bowl he offered, bringing it to her lips and sipping the broth slowly.

“Tastes better than my cooking,” she admitted.

Her voice trailed off. She watched him through the steam curling between them, her crimson eyes quiet and unreadable for a long moment.

“…Where will you go, after all this?” she asked softly. Not as a demand. Not as a test. Just a question, a rare glimpse into her thoughts, peeled back by weariness.

 

[Ispir Sione]

Ispir would almost jump, the bowl jostling in his hands, as Vyx'aria muttered her hoarse, teasing words. A fiery stab of guilt and embarrassment lancing through him in the moment because despite the fact he was genuinely simply trying to take care of her..... gods seeing her there, tousled, grinning and teasing was enough to make him turn beet red along with her words. She was pretty, he thought, very pretty.

He was so distracted by the grin, the fierceness despite her exhaustion, that she was able to pluck the bowl he had intended to feed her with right from his hands and he sputtered.

"W-Wai... Ahh... Uhmm....."

As she went silent Ispir would continue blushing deeply, pouting at her but not truly upset, his hands now left with nothing to do but awkwardly fiddle with the unused wooden spoon in his grasp as he worked up enough cohesive thoughts to protest.

"W-Well I... I was going to feed you. The rock behind you is too big for me to rest on and trying to sit beside you and hold it was too awkward s-so...."

Despite the fact what he said was TRUE even to his ears it sounded like a horrible, awful excuse. One that made him burn with shyness enough to melt down to a genuine answer right after it.

"B-Besides. I'm not sitting in a Drow's lap...."

He met her gaze for a moment, a gaze that had been dancing and wandering anywhere but on her previously, just to say.

"I'm sitting in your lap, Ria.~"

And there was not a single drop of deception, or venomous meaning, behind those words. In fact it was in every way the opposite. Her comment about it being better than her own cooking, though, would earn a pleased, cheeky grin and a small wiggle of his hips. That pure, happy energy being expressed without thought or conscious decision until.... she asked him where he planned to go.

Ispir paused. Which was odd.

Not because the question itself was odd, far from it, but because for the first time since his awakening he found himself.... really thinking about it. Or more accurately he found himself acknowledging something there, with her, something that he often ignored or was so caught up in the light and song of his travels he simply didn't notice it. Twirling the spoon in his hands, spinning it between nimble fingers, he would look off to the side and purse his lips. Answering slowly, tentatively, as if he was feeling out the words even as they passed his lips.

"I.... I'm going to keep travelling, I suppose?"

That answer that was usually the end of it, that answer that was TRUE, sat like ash on his tongue for the first time and Ispir would let out a shaky breathe as he hunched his shoulders up. Deciding, in this moment, to trust her. To tell her something he had never told anyone before. Simply because he hadn't ever confronted it himself.

"I feel at home on the road..... I have... wanderlust. Really bad. But...."

Exhaling a shaky breathe he didn't realize he'd been holding he looked down sadly at her lap, shrugging softly.

".... that's because.... nowhere really feels like home."

Those last few words came out more shaky than he intended, sounding weak, sounding fragile, even to him. Enough to make him wince a bit and grip the spoon in two white-knuckled hands. When he did speak again it was hurried, rushed, an excuse, a cover-up, and a bad one at that.

"It still feels.... nice to wander around though! I still enjoy it but...."

He shrugged, weakly.

"Every light has it's shadow, I guess. Every bad has it's good. I like wandering around but always feel homesick for a home I don't even remember."

He went silent for a few moments, mouth suddenly feeling dry, briefly meeting Ria's eyes, before looking away and crossing his arms timidly across his chest.

"I've never.... told anyone that before...."​

 

[Vyx'aria]

Vyx’aria quirked a brow at him, one sharp ear twitching faintly. “Feed me?” she repeated, her voice low and dry. She regarded the offered spoon. “The only time someone should feed me is if I’ve lost use of my arms.”

Without another word, she took the bowl and spoon from his hands and continued to eat. The idea of someone spooning it into her mouth still struck her as faintly absurd. She didn’t say it aloud, but internally, she dismissed the gesture with silent amusement. Grown adults feeding each other? Nonsense.

But when he spoke, her chewing slowed. She didn’t meet his gaze, not at first. When he confessed he had no home, when he said it so quietly, she finally turned her gaze toward him.

She said nothing for a while. Let the moment breathe.

Then: “You try to find your home in others,” she said simply. Her voice wasn’t cruel or condescending, only measured. Thoughtful. “You ground yourself in people. Their approval, their warmth. You chase connection because it feels like purpose. But it’s not foundation. Not really.”

She shifted slightly where she sat, her eyes now fixed on his.

“You have to stop listening for what others want you to be. The thing you’re searching for.. it may already be inside you. Your thoughts, your instincts... they try to guide you. But you drown them out listening for someone else to speak.”

She dipped the spoon back into the soup and took another bite before continuing.

“When you build a home inside yourself, it can become shelter for others too. But it has to start with you. Home is the strength and courage you foster within yourself.”

There was silence again.

Vyx’aria finally set the bowl down, empty now, and exhaled softly. “I had a home once. A real one. It’s still there. But I can’t go back right now.” Her voice didn’t waver. It was a fact, nothing more. “But I carry the strength in here-” she tapped her temple lightly, “-and in here.” She pressed her palm against her chest.

“That’s how I stay grounded. Even when I’m lost.”

 

[Ispir Sione]

Ispir would watch Vyx'aria twitch one of her ears as she denied ever being fed by someone else. The small bard mentally setting two goals in that moment. The first? To one day have Ria trust him enough, to let herself be vulnerable enough around him, to let him feed her. A silly goal, maybe even an impossible one, but one he set nonetheless. The second? To figure out how to make her ears do that cute wiggle thing even more.~

When Ria began to speak he expected it to end after that first, succinct sentence. Only for her to add more. Making Ispir blink in a.... Happy way? A surprised way? As Ria shifted under him he would gasp a small noise and plant his hands on her thighs to steady himself. That, combined with her eyes meeting his own, made him think maybe she was teasing him a bit.

But as Ria began to speak, genuinely encouraging him, advising him, the fact that someone as reserved as her even cared enough to do so, made him give a small, attentive, happy smile. He couldn't, after all, say she was wrong. She wasn't. But he also stopped himself from asking what else he was supposed to do. He WASN'T strong. He WASN'T brave.

And the last time he had ever listened to anything inside himself it has terrified and confused him.

Even so he would nod, slow and uncertain, as Ria paused to let silence reign again. When Ria finally spoke again Ispir was a bit embarrassed by how surprised he was. Of course Ria had a home. She didn't just sprout out of the ground! Then again neither did he but.... His thoughts would cut off as she tapped her temple, his eyes following her hand as it tapped her chest. Ispir would, looking back into her eyes, hands still planted on her thighs for stability, smile a bit wider and he managed to encapsulate his thoughts on such a complex topic in three simple words. Spoken from the heart.

"Thank you Ria. That.... Was very sweet of you. Oh! I know! Maybe if I help you get back to your home it'll make me U-Umm.... Strong enough to start building my heart-house!"

Nodding at his own suggestion he would suddenly sober up, expression becoming serious as he gazed into her eyes, and added in a quieter tone. But no less serious.

"But.... You can rely on other people too, ya know Ria? M-Maybe not the people at your home if you can't go back but, you've got me!"

Shifting a bit in her lap his eyes would then sweep up to her ears, his smile returning, and he giggled a bit before adding in a soft, teasing tone. Ending on a pretty baffling topic considering how he was just a few moments ago.

"A-Also that little ear wiggle was very cute. I like it.~"​

 

[Vyx'aria]

Vyx’aria’s brows lifted the moment his hands settled on her thighs, not in outrage, not quite in alarm either, but in a flicker of sharp-eyed confusion. Like she was trying to decide what exactly this was. Her gaze narrowed further when he spoke, those crimson eyes scanning his expression with an unreadable stillness.

“There is no reason for me to return,” she said flatly. Her voice lacked venom, but the conviction behind it was absolute. “My entire family has been butchered. And anyone I rely on tends to die.”

She said it with a matter-of-factness that stripped the drama from the claim, but not the weight.

Her eyes held his for a second longer before she leaned in, just slightly, enough to make it unclear what she might do next. But instead of leaning into affection or allowing him to linger, her hands caught his waist with a smooth, practiced strength. In one effortless motion, she lifted him off her lap and set him neatly on the ground beside her.

“I’d suggest you concern yourself with cheerful, kind souls like yourself,” she added with a low, dry rasp.

Then she rose, stretching her arms overhead, her muscles pulling taut beneath the faint shimmer of her armor as her joints popped audibly. A breath released from her chest, one of exhaustion fading, not of relief. The meal had helped. Her body was no longer trembling with fatigue.

Vyx’aria rolled one shoulder, then glanced back at him. “I can’t always control the ear thing,” she said, a smirk tugging at her lips.

“You ready to keep going?”

 

[Ispir Sione]

For a brief, heartbeat-long moment the news that Vyx'aria 's family had been killed brought a look of true, utter sadness to Ispir's features. Though it would solidify into something between sad and stubborn as she mentioned that anyone she relied on tended to die. The tone did nothing to dull his emotions. Utterly lacking in the stoic intrigue of her people, the controlled expressions and closely guarded secrets, he was like a lighthouse of honest emotion.

A lighthouse that blazed all the brighter with wide-eyed astonishment as Ria proceeded to lean up and in toward him. He didn't even blush from this motion because, well, he never really considered that Ria would hug him or anything. That wasn't like her. If anything he expected her to tease him or whisper something vaguely grumpy in his ear. He did nearly jump when her hands gripped his waist, a faint tremor arcing up his spine like a low-intensity electric shock. A small, somewhat surprised whisper leaving him as she lifted him off her lap.

"O-Oh."

It wasn't sad, nor disappointed really, merely a gentle, timid expression of sheer surprise at her strength. Muffled, subdued by another gently tingling emotion he couldn't put words to. As Ria rose and he now sat along on the floor he watched her curiously, her words, her compliments, those were what made him blush a little. Cheerful? He supposed so. He really did try to make people's days better as much as he could. Kind? He hoped so. The world didn't seem to have enough kindness nowadays.

Ispir was, not for the first nor the last time, arrested from his thoughts as Ria stretched her arms over her head. He was at once reminded of a jungle cat emerging from her slumber and also distinctly aware of just how.... pretty Ria was. In the fading light of the small fire he had used to make her soup, the tinder smoldering low enough to glimmer in her eyes as she looked back at him and gave a beautiful smirk.

He swallowed.

Something told him she didn't know how charming she could be.

Giving a nod and hopping to his feet he would scuff out the fire with his shoe before pausing, noticing that Ria now had both cloaks draped over her shoulders he found a cheeky grin growing on his face. The..... unique fashion statement making him snort a soft, tinkling laugh as he rushed past her and spun to look back at HER. Arms lacing behind his back as he teased.

"Only if you're done hogging all the cloaks, Ria.~"

He didn't seem to be in a rush to retrieve either one, trusting that she would return them as she saw fit, and as he made his way back out into the main room he motioned for her to follow as he made his way toward the Water door. Only to pause in front of it, furrow his brow, and as Ispir extended a hand to touch the door and step forward the door simply..... drew him in? Like he had pierced the surface of a bubble only to vanish behind. What awaited behind it was... quite different.

A vast chamber stretched before the two. Something almost like a beach at their feet. Beyond and across the vast chamber a crystal glowed as if imitating the sun itself and the chamber was almost completely full of water. An already-forming water elemental seemed responsible for the fake tide that washed in and out and Ispir would look back at Ria with a smile.

Spoiler: A Smile

"This is nice...."

He was not at all as wary as he should have been. But he was also not punished for it. Instead a voice like the crash of waves would sound out to them, drawing Ispir's attention as the elemental intoned.

"You have proven the heat of your passions. The steadfastness of your resolve. Now, a test of wit and wisdom. The cool temper of the Water.

I have Mountains with no rock
Oceans with no water
Deserts with no sand
And continents with no Land

What am I?"

Ispir..... looked flabbergasted. Even rubbing his face in exasperation before groaning.

"Ooooh.... can't you just attack us instead? I'm not very smart ya know!?"​